Daily Archives: May 2, 2008

Skipping past the Beavis and Butthead aspect of the story, ESPN is reporting that Casey Dick can breathe easier about his starting job this season at Arkansas, as Ryan Mallett’s petition to the NCAA to be granted immediate eligibility after transferring from Michigan has been denied.

While I think a general rule allowing a kid to be able to transfer without sitting out for a year from a college that changes head coaches is eminently fair, that’s just it – it ought to be a general rule. Sure, common sense tells us there’s no way someone with Mallett’s skill set would have wanted to play in Rich Rodriguez’ spread option offense. (For that matter, it’s unlikely that Rich Rod would have recruited the kid in the first place.) But, granting a waiver to Mallett on an individual basis would have been a recipe for chaos, not to mention that it would have been incredibly unfair to the thousands of kids who have been in the exact same shoes as Mallett and didn’t ask for or get a waiver.

Maybe this incident will get the powers that be in college football to reconsider the rule. Get on the stick, NCAA, and do something reasonable for your student athletes.

University of Alabama head football coach Nick Saban, making his third stop on a tour around the state, told media representatives on Thursday that he was ‘disappointed’ that a college football playoff was unlikely to materialize before the year 2014.

‘I’ve always been a fan of the plus-one idea,’ Saban said. ‘Since 1997, I have been advocating a four-team playoff. It seems like almost every year when you have issues it involves a third team being left out. I’m sure with a four-team playoff you’d have the fifth team complaining, but at least you’d be pretty sure you had the best team in that top four.’

Saban said he supported the playoff, even though his 2003 LSU team won the BCS championship under the current system.

‘I just like the idea that you would have to beat two quality teams to win the championship,’ he said. ‘It would be difficult, but that’s what you have to do in the NFL.

‘The plus-one system could be very easily implemented. It would give us a combination of the current bowl system with a chance to find the best team.’

Sooner coach Bob Stoops sees both sides of the argument, but said that the plus-one format doesn’t work in seasons where two teams are clearly superior.

“That’s a good scenario when there’s an odd number of teams with no losses or one loss,” Stoops said last fall. “It doesn’t make sense in years like 2000 when we won a national championship and were the only team with no losses. Why should we have to beat all the one-loss teams?

“Or there was the year Ohio State and Miami were the only two teams in the country undefeated. Why should they have to play another game? You guys would have an uproar and tear that one apart if an undefeated team had to go play a one-loss team. Some years it makes sense. Other years it doesn’t.”

I don’t really have any editorial comment to add here. I just think the debate’s cool.

Seriously, it’s times like this I’m reminded that there are no depths to the stubbornness of some people. This kid had an opportunity to step into the limelight and set himself for a big payday in a year or so. And he had a coach and school that seemingly bent over backwards to enable that. Now, poof…

At least he got to go to the White House.

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UPDATE: Gawd, I love the perspective of the college football fan. Enjoy this exchange from an LSU message board:

I guess I’ll have to be less judgmental when I see people leaving a game at Sanford Stadium early, as it’s gone completely smoke free.

… Under the new policy, fans will not be allowed to leave Sanford Stadium to smoke and then re-enter. That means smokers will have to wait more than three hours without a puff.

“It’s the same as a plane flight,” Crumley said.

You know, he’s on to something there. Both experiences share smoking bans, getting through security, lines to use the toilets and uncomfortable seating (except for the first class section). Although you do get a free beverage on most flights these days.

Quote Of The Day

“It's definitely different not knowing exactly who it's gonna be, but in a way, I feel like that's good,” he said. “One of my old coaches from Valdosta told me that competition is one of the best coaches. And I feel like, as well as each one of those three guys is performing, they're not gonna do anything but make each other better.” -- Jay Rome, The Red & Black, 3/25/15